Great faith that moves mountains comes from God’s Word mixed with a surrendered heart.
We have established that we need the right ingredients and that any heart will not produce great faith. It is now time to look at the other ingredient: God’s Word. I fear that many have a warped or limited understanding of what God’s Word actually is. Let’s make sure that you are pursuing the real thing that will result in great faith in a surrendered heart.
If you missed the first three posts, you could find them here:
Please read them first to make the best of this post.
The term ‘God’s Word’ is often used by Christians, and it has many applications and at times even different meanings. In this post, we are merely going to focus on how you access God’s Word to produce great faith. It will not make you a theologian but then theology is not known for producing great faith…
Let’s start at the beginning. God’s purpose for you is that you will love Him with all your being for all eternity. The problem is that you cannot love Him if you do not know Him. To solve this problem, He sent Jesus to show us who He (God) is.
We look at this Son and see the God who cannot be seen. We look at this Son and see God’s original purpose in everything created.
Col 1:15 MSG
His Son is the reflection of God’s glory and the exact likeness of God’s being.
Heb 1:3a GW
Throughout human history, we have tended to decide who we think God is or should be. Whatever people say about God that feels good or seems convenient is accepted as truth. God becomes man-made (an idol) and merely the result of our imagination or current and ever-changing worldview.
An imaginary and non-existent person cannot cause you to love him or believe in him. You might find him very agreeable, but he never actually does anything.
Jesus reveals God to us for real. Whatever you know about Jesus, is what you know about God. And His true nature often upsets the applecart of our worldview and how we think He ought to be.
To love God for real you need to know Him for real. Jesus reveals to you what you need to know. His arrival among us, His life, His words, His deeds, His death, and His resurrection reveal God to us in a way that will cause you to fall in love with Him with your whole being for eternity.
His simple words, ‘Come, follow me’ changed humble fisherman, tax-collectors, and prostitutes from a small place in a primitive time into world-changers whose lives have impacted every generation and every nation since then. To know Jesus is to know God. To know Jesus is to become truly alive. To know Jesus is the greatest adventure you will ever know!
Accepting the fact that you cannot travel back 2 000 years in time to a small place called Galilea, getting to know Jesus may seem to be a challenge.
Enter the Bible!
The Bible is a beautiful, multi-layered book treasured by millions. But the most important thing you need to know about the Bible is that it is all about Jesus. Every story, every prophecy, every broken person’s mess portrayed, and every act of God tells you more about Jesus. His heart, His nature, and His character – the things you need to know to fall in love with the real and only Jesus. Whenever you open your Bible the question you ask is simply, ‘What is this verse or story telling me about Jesus?’
The bottom line is, you cannot be lazy with the Bible and expect to have great faith…
This may sound like a very academic study of an ancient text, something that is not the gifting or equipping found in most people. If you, like me, are not drawn to such a study, don’t worry.
Enter the Holy Spirit!
God Emmanuel. God with us always.
The Holy Spirit has this amazing ability to cut through everything and reveal Jesus to us as we engage with the Bible. Not mere head knowledge for an essay about someone you have never met. A personal revelation of someone you can fall in love with for real and forever.
As you get to know more about Him and fall in love with Him, something wonderful happens. Jesus explains it in a word-picture where He is the Shepherd and you and I are the sheep.
“I am the good shepherd; I know my own sheep, and they know me, just as my Father knows me and I know the Father. So I sacrifice my life for the sheep.
Joh 10:14-15 NLT
On this journey of growing in knowledge that causes love to develop, something very special takes shape that brings us back to where we started: faith.
My sheep recognize my voice. I know them, and they follow me.
Joh 10:27 MSG
I get to know His voice! Because I know Him and He knows me. Just look at what the opposite looks like in the previous verse.
You don’t believe because you’re not my sheep.
Joh 10:26 MSG
Faith comes from hearing God’s Word in that still, small voice that I hear and recognize because He is my Shepherd. I know Him. I love Him. And I walk with Him.
Faith does not come from anything you hear. It comes from hearing God’s Word. And God’s Word is not a mere recital of the Bible. The Holy Spirit needs to be in the mix for your heart to recognise the voice of Him that you love and trust.
Faith is awesome! Faith is powerful! May you have great faith as get to know His heart and hear His voice.
Jesus replied, “Truly I tell you, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and it will be done.
If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.” Mat 21:21-22 NIV
Mat 21:21-22 NIV
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